Bruins pleased with draft results

Unable to move up in the first round or add a second-round choice, Boston was glad to add winger Jordan Caron’s size and scoring skills. The Bruins also fulfilled their hope of drafting a puck-moving defenseman, then concentrated on adding toughness along the forward lines.

Thankfully for their formerly frustrated fans, the Bruins have moved back outside the realm of teams drafting early enough to entertain reasonable expectations of immediate help. Since Phil Kessel at No. 5 overall in 2006 (he was ready right away) and Zach Hamill at No. 8 in 2007 (still a year or so away from Boston), the B’s have backpedaled to No. 16 (center Joe Colborne) and, over the weekend, 25th overall in the first round.

So how soon might we see Jordan Caron, this year’s top choice, in an NHL game at TD Banknorth Garden?

General manager Peter Chiarelli’s on-the-spot estimate at the Entry Draft in Montreal was “two to 21/2 years,” which would be fine. Take a look at Boston’s left-wing depth chart, and whether P.J. Axelsson re-signs or not, there’s Marco Sturm, Milan Lucic and Blake Wheeler – so there’s no need for the B’s to rush Caron to the NHL.

That doesn’t mean he can’t be ready sooner, though, because Caron seems to be a mix of attractive qualities: He’s big, will add bulk his current 6-foot-2, 202-pound dimensions, and uses his body. He can shoot and score. He’s playoff-tested. Similar assets and track records – plus no small amount of maturity and character – got Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic to the NHL as teenagers.

In post-draft comments, Chiarelli sometimes sounded like he was talking about two different players when discussing Caron, who scored 36 goals in only 56 regular-season games this past season with Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

At one point, the GM said the B’s “got our skill with Caron and (third-round pick Ryan Button, a defenseman),” while in another conversation, Chiarelli said Caron “has power forward tendencies. He’s a big kid, heavy on the puck.”

Another point in Caron’s favor is post-season performance. He scored six goals and 11 points in 13 post-season contests, and while the Oceanic didn’t win the QMJHL championship, his Rimouski team qualified for the Memorial Cup final as host city. Playing on an enormous, pressure-packed stage, Caron scored two more goals over four games.

“What we feared was that he had such a good Memorial Cup, and that’s the last impression a lot of scouts had,” said Chiarelli, who wasn’t able to move up from 25th in the draft via trade, as hoped. “That’s why we thought he would have been in the top echelon.”

Fortunately for the Bruins, there was a run on defensemen (10 were selected in the first 23 choices) ahead of them, and a player they thought might be gone within the first 15 picks was available at No. 25.

“When we saw the trend of the draft, and it looked like (Caron) would be available, we kind of called off the dogs (i.e., stopped trying to trade up),” Chiarelli said. “And we were lucky. We thought a couple other teams were going to take him.”

Page 2 of 2 - Boston wasn’t quite as fortunate in other aspects of the draft. Hopes of replacing the second-round pick traded in 2007 to the New York Islanders for Petteri Nokelainen weren’t realized, and a potential third-round choice from Philadelphia for Andrew Alberts turned into a fourth-rounder. (The B’s and Flyers do switch third- and fourth-round positions next year, though.)

The Bruins, armed with only four choices after Caron, were still able to bring back a skating/puck-moving defenseman (Button, who ranked 21st among North American skaters, seventh among defensemen) and, with fourth-, sixth- and seventh-round picks, forwards Lane MacDermid, Tyler Randell and Ben Sexton – “bigger guys, rougher guys,” according to Chiarelli.

Wayne Smith, in his first year as Boston’s director of amateur scouting, said the draftees all share a quality that is now a requirement when the B’s evaluate players.

“We’ve continued on our path to be hard to play against,” Smith said. “The people we selected in this draft are all hard to play against.”